CPT could see a new special levy on water

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille says that a proposed new levy is crucial to help fund infrastructure and maintenance water projects.

Some Capetonians could pay between R45 and R60 every month.

The money will also be ploughed into water augmentation programmes set up to manage the drought.

De Lille says that the municipality will consider the poor when debating the move at a council meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

“That’s why we’re looking at the value of the house. If you are taking a house worth R2 million, the proposed drought charge could be R123 per month.”

The mayor says that Capetonians must reduce their water usage to below 87 litres per person per day.

“We thank the water-saving heroes for all their efforts to help us beat this drought, but not everyone is doing their part. We cannot allow some people to continue abusing water while we are in the midst of an unprecedented drought.

“This is the only way Cape Town can avoid Day Zero when all residents play their part and save water while the city builds new water projects. We can only save water while there is still water to save.”

On Sunday, the city installed water management devices at three properties: two in Pinelands and another in Thornton.

The water usage of these households over the past six months ranged between 19,000 and 48,000 litres per month.

This means that, on average, the daily consumption of these households often exceeded 1,000 litres per day.

The mayor adds: “Many high users maintain a stubborn attitude in this time of water scarcity and have prevented city staff and contractors from accessing their properties to install these meters.”

The City has taken actions to install water management devices at 18,597 high consumption households across the city so far where contraventions have occurred.